Attendance management for pharmaceutical companies

Punch at the gate, before the change room

Phones and watches do not enter clean areas, so production and QA staff punch at the main gate or the change room entrance before gowning. Gowning for a controlled area takes several minutes, so decide whether shift start means the punch at the gate or entry into the production corridor, and set the grace period to match. Where staff carry phones up to the change room, a kiosk tablet with a rotating QR code outside the gowning area works as well as a biometric reader.

When attendance meets the batch record

During an inspection, an auditor may pick a batch manufacturing record and ask who was present when a step was signed. If an IPQA officer signed a line clearance at 2:40 am, attendance must show that officer on the night shift. Keep corrections disciplined: an approved correction updates the day while the original punches are kept, so the record shows both what happened and who changed it. Never adjust attendance afterwards to fit a document; that turns a clerical gap into a data integrity finding.

Field attendance for medical representatives

An MR's day starts with the first doctor call, often around 9:30 am, and ends after evening chemist and doctor calls. Ask MRs to punch in from the app at the first call and out after the last, with GPS location on the punch. Daily call reports stay in the sales reporting tool, and HR compares the two only when a query comes up.

• Headquarters days: punch from the app at the first call
• Out-station days: punch as usual; the allowance claim follows the sales process
• Cycle meetings and trainings: on duty request
• Sunday medical camps: comp-off or as your field policy says

Month close for two workforces

Plant attendance closes like any factory: corrections cleared, night shift days confirmed, month finalized. Field attendance needs one extra step. Area managers confirm missing punches and on duty days for their team before the 2nd, because field allowances and incentive eligibility often depend on days worked. Only then does HR finalize the month and hand paid days to payroll, so a late correction does not reopen incentive calculations.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Connect gate and change room biometric devices over ADMS (iclock), or import punches from Excel where devices cannot push.
2. Create production, QA, QC and engineering shifts in Shifts & Roster, and give the field force a flexible shift with minimum hours.
3. In Capture controls, set the mobile location rule and phone binding for MRs, so field punches carry location and come from the approved phone.
4. Place a kiosk tablet with the rotating QR code outside the gowning area where staff still carry phones at that point.
5. In the work terms policy, set field as the default work model for the sales team.
6. Set correction limits with manager then HR approval, so every change to a past day is recorded while original punches are kept.

Read more about attendance in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions